Erica Packer bares - nearly - all to Vogue Australia

That's one way to move on from a billionaire

Vogue Australia has scored something of a coup for its November 2013 issue - a cover story starring Erica Packer, the recently-estranged wife of Crown Limited chairman James Packer, Australia's third richest man.

The issue's only cover line is "The Vogue interview: motherhood & moving on".

The issue is out tomorrow and a spokeswoman has confirmed that the cover that was released today on the Vogue website and other news outlets operated by licensee News Corp Australia, is the actual newsstand cover (as opposed to a subscriber cover or simply another image from Packer's photoshoot within the magazine).

Brilliant get, of course.

But the choice of cover is even more interesting. And since Packer has flown in to meet and greet the media at a special launch in Sydney tomorrow night to promote the issue, one assumes the title had her explicit permission before proceeding with same.

Shot by Steven Chee and styled by Vogue's senior fashion editor Christine Centenera, the cover features the 36 year-old former model in a gown from Christian Dior's Fall 2013 haute couture collection, which was presented in Paris in July - reportedly attended by Packer, with her three young children Indigo, Jackson and Emmanuelle. And reportedly also hand-chosen by her for the cover.

The full-length violet gown is completely transparent and on the runway was presented by the company's new creative director Raf Simons on Dutch model Marte Mei van Haaster with just a pair of high-waisted black knickers underneath.

According to Vogue sources, the dress was styled and shot for the cover exactly per the show look - which is, Frockwriter is told, a requirement of the house of Dior when shooting its haute couture collections.

It is extremely difficult to imagine any of Dior's cashed-up couture clients wearing this dress in real life without some form of slip or coverup underneath - certainly on the top portion.

And yet here is a hotpant-clad Packer, not in a surreptitious "side boob" shot taken by a paparazzo at a red carpet event, but in a carefully art-directed Vogue cover photograph, covering the nipple of her clearly-visible left breast with one arm.

Haute couture represents the absolute top end of the fashion business - as practised by just 14 officially-accredited fashion houses, with an additional 14 invited/associated members permitted to participate in the bi-annual show schedule by by the Paris-based Chambre Syndicale de la haute couture.

With prices starting at US$10,000 for daywear and reaching into the hundreds of thousands of dollars for the heavily-embellished eveningwear that often requires hundreds of hours of craftsmanship, it is no surprise that the client base is limited. Current estimates put the client base at a maximum of 2000.

There is no shortage of super rich in the world and what better way to differentiate yourself from the masses than with an ultra-exclusive, hand-made gown tailored to your exact measurements and which costs as much as a Lamborghini?

With her divorce settlement looming Packer might not have to curb her couture appetite.